Tangled
by cavlik97
Summary: a christmas story that involves an enthusiastic skye, getting tangled in christmas lights, a blackout and a skyeward kiss in the dark. set fairly soon after 1x11


**A/N: Okay so this fic was inspired by several tumblr posts that can be found here:**

** post/71938931751/hey-hey-hey-remember-the-skyeward-fic-i-was **

**and I know it's 2 days into the new year but psch, Christmas was still a week ago and can still be celebrated. The Ward and Skye backstories are made up by me and there is a slight spoiler for 1x11 (mention of what happened in the first official clip for the episode). **

**Anyway! DISCLAIMER: I don't own AOS or these characters, I can only dream.**

**Enjoy! (And please review!)**

Skye was well aware that she didn't have a plethora of reasons to enjoy Christmas that much. When she was growing up, the nuns tried their hardest to make the holidays an enjoyable time at St. Agnes. They always allowed the kids to run around decorating the orphanage dorms and living quarters but Skye's continuous Christmases there just served as an unfriendly reminder of how nobody else wanted her.

During the Christmas season, most foster families with children of their own would tend to send their foster kids to a group home or back to the orphanages during the holidays as they didn't want extras to feed and buy presents for. Foster families that _didn't _send the kids away usually didn't celebrate Christmas and Skye remembered a particular Christmas eve at age twelve when her douche bag of a foster father stumbled through the door at 11:48pm completely drunk, demanding that the children cleaned the house and got him something else to drink.

Despite it all, Christmases at St. Agnes always proved to be somehow pleasant, even if there weren't any presents and the decorations were limited. Skye always liked the church services and she knew all the carols off by heart by the time she was six.

Back when she first bought her van, she caved and spent a ridiculously large chunk of her pay check (working at the coffee store down the road) buying a mini Christmas tree, two large bags worth of decorations and several boxes of battery powered fairy lights. It made the small vehicle feel happy and cheery and alive.

Which is also why when Fitzsimmons informed her that Coulson had three boxes of Christmas decorations stored in a cupboard in the cargo hold of the Bus, Skye immediately knew that she was going to need to do some decorating.

'Ward, come on, I need your help,' she announced, pulling open the door to her S.O.'s bunk.

'Huh – why?' said Ward in confusion, crinkling his nose. 'With what?'

'Do you know what the date is?' Skye demanded, folding her arms.

'Yeah...it's the 18th of December...? What about it?'

'It means there's only a week till Christmas!' exclaimed Skye. '7 days until probably the coolest day of the year and I haven't even seen a single string of tinsel on this plane. Come on, you're helping me decorate.'

'Not a chance Skye,' Ward said immediately. 'I hate Christmas.'

'Of course you do, why would Grant Ward, T-1000 SHIELD robot of doom like Christmas?' teased Skye, rolling her eyes. '_Pleeeeeease_? I'll owe you one! I've already got Fitzsimmons decorating the lab and they put up a Christmas tree in the lounge room about ten minutes ago. At least help me put up the lights everywhere.'

Ward raised an uncertain eyebrow. 'Just the lights?' he asked suspiciously.

'Just the lights,' promised Skye. Ward pushed his laptop off his lap, rising to his feet grudgingly and allowing Skye to drag him down the plane's corridors with an excited squeal.

Honestly, Ward didn't _hate _Christmas. The holiday held good and bad memories for him. He remembered the early days with his parents when he and his brothers would race down the stairs and rip open the numerous gifts waiting for them under the tree in their living room. But in years to come, any gifts would go to the oldest of the three boys. Occasionally, Ward would find the motivation to wake up just as the sun rose and sit at his bedroom window and watch the snow coated world outside, remembering the days of egg nog, the sound of tearing gift wrap, laughter and the crackling of a fireplace and a time when Santa Claus was real and pain was just scraping your knee on the concrete outside your house.

Once at SHIELD, Christmas was subtly celebrated with hanging of tinsel and a Christmas tree lighting up the room on every floor. Most agents would hang mistletoe everywhere possible as a joke and so the holidays at SHIELD HQ were never too dull.

Ward was confused though. He knew Christmas in the foster system vaguely – for Skye, who wouldn't have known anything different her whole life, how was it possible to be so enthusiastic about a holiday that held no personal positive connotations?

'I know what you're thinking,' said Skye quietly as she hooked a string of lights around the corner of the Bus' living room.

'No you don't,' Ward answered, startled out of his reveries.

'Yes I do. You're wondering why I'm so perky about Christmas when I've never celebrated it with a proper family.'

'Okay...yes you do know what I'm thinking.'

Skye sent him a cheeky smirk over her shoulder, purposefully not answering and loudly clambering up the couch to lassoo the lights around a wall corner. Her foot almost slipped and Ward instinctively grabbed her arms to stop her from falling to the ground with a _thump._

'Thanks,' said Skye, slightly out of breath.

'Okay you just stay down here and string me the lights, I'll hang 'em up,' instructed Ward with an over exaggerated sigh.

'Told ya you'd get in the festive spirit!' said Skye enthusiastically.

Ward let out a disgruntled mutter, ducking around Skye to loop the lights around the bar. Skye leaned against the back of the couch in amusement, folding her arms and casting her SO a smirk.

'You know,' Ward said, a bit quieter than usual. 'I don't _actually _hate Christmas.'

Skye looked over at him, one raised eyebrow. 'Well yeah, I figured, it's kinda impossible to fully blown _hate _Christmas. C'mon man, it's _Christmas_!'

Ward let out a small chuckle. 'I've told you about my brothers, right?'

Skye nodded.

'Well, it wasn't always like that. The three of us were really close when we were younger. Our parents did everything they could to make sure we didn't fight and that all three of us were equal – they made it clear they didn't have a favourite between us.' He turned so he could face Skye properly, catching her eye. 'Then, it all went to hell one Christmas when we were staying with our grandparents. My parents were on their way over on the 23rd and their plane went down. Evening of the 24th, it was announced there were no survivors.'

Skye's jaw dropped and Ward saw the pain flicker in her eyes.

'We stayed with our grandparents for a couple of years but they both got old and couldn't look after us,' continued Ward. 'From there, we were put in the system. We managed to stick together when we got put into a foster home but my older brother went nuts. I dunno what happened to him. I don't think he ever got over Mom and Dad's death – he took it out on us. I was a wimpy, chubby kid and no matter how much I tried, I couldn't ever protect my little brother the way I should have. After about four years in the system, my dad's brother took us in now that his own kids had left to go to college. My older brother still beat the crap out of us when noone was around so when I was fourteen, I took my little brother and ran away. Of course – I was still a kid and I didn't have any money so I took my brother to social services, told them what the situation was and by the next morning, I left.'

'You _left_?' Skye echoed. 'What the hell, why did you _leave_? You would've been safe there, you would've been with your brother!' She knew that she had no room to judge, considering she'd run away from St. Agnes when she was sixteen.

'It was a spur of the moment choice,' admitted Ward. 'But living on the street took its toll.' He gave Skye a grin. 'I lost all the baby fat and I got good at stealing and fending for myself. Which is how SHIELD picked me up.'

'Wow,' Skye said with a whistle. 'Never knew I'd get the Grant Ward backstory when I asked for help with Christmas lights.' Despite the teasing air in her voice, Ward could see the sympathy on her face.

'The _point _of this story,' Ward said with a roll of his eyes, 'is that there _were _a few years before the accident and even some after where Christmas wasn't as bad as I sometimes thought it was.' He gave her a genuine smile. 'I'm getting the feeling that this Christmas is going to be one of the good ones.'

Skye ducked her head so she could hide her blush. 'Aw Ward. Who would've known you could be sappy – '

All the breath almost left Ward as a illuminatingly beautiful smile fell onto her face as her words trailed off when the lights flickered on – her eyes brightening as she let out an excited squeal. '_Oh my God, look at the lights_! Holy crap look at the lights Ward!'

'Yes Skye, I can see them, I'm the one putting them up,' Ward said with a hint of sarcasm.

'Don't be snappy and be festive!' chided Skye. She bounced on the balls of her feet excitedly, beaming at Ward.

'Okay, I know it looks pretty,' said Ward, 'but if you want all these up, can you give me a hand with this corner?'

Neither of them were really sure what happened. One moment Skye was ducking under Ward's arm and slinking onto her tip toes to help him, the next, the entire bus went dark. The plane shuddered for just a second, May's shock evident in the flight of the plane. A loud shout of 'What's going on?' echoed down the hallways from Coulson's office and the easily recognisable exclamations of Fitzsimmons from the lab. In the confusion, Skye grabbed on to Ward's shirt. The force of her grasp caught him off guard and he fell forwards with a yelp, Skye shrieking as they tumbled forwards, a string of the lights roping around their legs, effectively trapping them by the time they fell to the ground together with a _thud. _

For several moments, the bus was dead quiet.

'Ow,' Skye muttered finally.

'I think all the Christmas lights blew the Bus's main power,' announced Ward, trying hard to ignore her heavy breath against his neck.

'Coulson's gonna be _pissed,_' Skye groaned. She leaned upwards, shuffling upwards so that she could peer over Ward's shoulder at the situation they were in. The fairy lights were the only lights still working in the bus and half of them were tightly wrapped around the middle and lower sections of their bodies.

'Does it look like we could get out easily?' asked Ward and Skye had to clamp her teeth together hard to avoid shivering at their proximity to each other. She wasn't going to deny how insanely attractive he was, or how attracted she was _to _him. I mean, how many times had she cast a sideways gaze at him working out while she was hanging out with Fitzsimmons in the lab? But more than that, he believed in her, he had slowly grown to trust her again and more than anything else, _she _trusted _him. _Being here on the bus was the first time she had properly let anyone in since Miles and for once, it felt like doing so wasn't going to turn around and bite her in the ass.

'You're unusually quiet,' murmured Ward.

'It's kinda my fault we're in this mess,' admitted Skye with a sigh. 'Sorry. Coulson's gonna be mad.'

'He'll get it,' Ward said gently. 'He loves Christmas. Probably more than you do. He's not gonna hold any of it against you, trust me.'

'He's given me enough second chances,' Skye said under her breath, almost angrily to herself. She saw out of the corner of her eye Ward frown and the unspoken question was obvious on his face.

_What the hell are you talking about?_

'Doesn't matter,' she said with a shake of her head. She could see Ward about to question her further but he decided against it, glancing around them to see if there was a weak spot in the tightly wound coil of lights around them.

Skye could feel her heart pounding relentlessly against her ribs. Ward's hand had made its way to the small of her back, his breath rifling through her hair. He shifted his weight onto his right shoulder, craning his neck to gaze down at their entangled legs. His feet brushed against hers, grunting as he tried to nudge his knee through a gap in the lights.

Skye swallowed. She knew that he had to have a much easier way to get them out of this situation – after all, he was a highly trained specialist SHIELD agent.

Whatever escape he was trying to avoid, Skye guessed it was him trying to be a gentlemen and somehow sidestep an awkward situation for them both.

'You know something I read when I was a kid?' she said, shuffling so that she was resting on one elbow.

'What?' asked Ward, raising an eyebrow.

'Maya Angelou once said that you can tell a lot about a person by the way they handle three things: a rainy day, lost luggage and tangled Christmas tree lights. Kind of fitting for the situation, you think?'

Ward managed a soft chuckle. Skye felt a growing stiffness in her shoulder and let slip a muffled curse.

'Look Ward,' she said, 'I know you can get us out of this. Just do it okay before the power gets back on and the rest of the team walk in here and start making assumptions.'

'Forget the team making assumptions,' Ward said through grit teeth. 'We may be in some awkward and compromising positions if I try and get us out of these lights. I'll have to be on top of you.'

'Go ahead,' smirked Skye with a cheeky wink.

'Skye,' Ward said exasperatedly with a huge sigh.

'Okay, okay, serious face on! Go on, just do it. I wanna be able to take some lights down so Coulson can't blame me for draining all the power.'

'But you _did _drain all the power...'

'Shut up and do what you need to do, super spy!'

Ward rolled his eyes at the nickname and surveyed their situation once more. 'Put your hands on my shoulders and make sure your elbows are tucked in. You can rest them on my chest if you want.'

Skye didn't question his instructions, noting the tone in his voice. It was same tone he used on missions, the tone that stopped Fitzsimmons from arguing in the lab and led Skye to do anything and everything he said. She made a mental comment regarding his very defined shoulder muscles and the extremely noticable hardness of his chest but didn't say anything aloud, just bit back a small grin.

'I'm gonna roll us over,' informed Ward. 'From there, the lights will loosen a little bit and I'll push myself back as far as possible so you can crawl out. Got it?'

'Aye, aye captain,' replied Skye, wishing she had an arm free to salute.

'On three,' said Ward. 'One, two, _three – _' He moved his body weight onto her, distributing it quickly so that by the time she rolled onto the ground, his weight was resting solely on his left arm that was on the floor. After all, he was much heavier than her and crushing her with his weight was not part of this plan. As they fell, Skye let out a quiet shriek of surprise at the momentum they turned with, her arms latching around his neck tightly. Instinctively, Ward's arms encircled her waist and when they finally made it to the position he had intended, there was little to no space between them (_not _intended) and their faces were inches apart.

'Skye.' Ward tried to say warningly but it came out as a breathless whisper, his eyes locking onto hers. Very uncharacteristically, Skye didn't say a word but he could feel her moving in closer as her breath ghosted over his lips. He meant to say _don't_ but it caught in his throat and before he could convince himself that everything happening right now was very, very wrong, her lips were against his and he was kissing her back – (why was he kissing her back, what the hell was wrong with him?) – and her hands were woven into his hair and her shirt had ridden up and his coarse, calloused fingers were brushing against her bare back and she let out a squeak at his cold hands, the sound blurring and smothering any conscious thoughts in his mind.

'Merry Christmas Grant,' she murmured, her lips still against his and he caved, pulling her even closer so that their bodies became a tangled mess of each other and flashing lights around them.

She nipped at his bottom lip and he laughed, a warm, gravelly sound that grounded her and gave her a strange feeling of security. She knew that now, they needed to get out of their sticky situation because the power was definitely going to come on soon and they most definitely could not be caught like this but before she could bring it up, he'd captured her lips again.

'Ward – ' she attempted but it was lost in a giggle as he tickled her sides. 'No, wait – Grant hang on – '

He broke away, resting her forehead against his. There was a moment of silence between them. 'We should go, right?' he guessed.

She nodded. 'Yeah.' She hesitated for a moment, and then brought her hands up to the sides of his face, running a thumb over the stubble of his cheeks and gently bringing his head down to meet him in another kiss. This one was soft, quiet and Ward realised with a start that he didn't recognise it – he hadn't kissed anyone with this sincerity and purpose in so long, maybe ever.

'Alright then Robot,' said Skye quietly. 'Let's get outta here.'

He gave her a small nod to which she unwound her legs from his and using as much upper body strength as she could muster, pulled herself backwards with her elbows until she had enough room to crawl out into the open space around them. Now that she was free, Ward got to his feet and the lights fell to the ground around him.

'There we go,' said Skye with a half-grin. 'I guess now we should take a few of these down before Coulson – ' Her words trailed off when the Bus's main lights flashed on around them and Coulson's voice echoed through the plane.

'Skye, unless you want me telling HQ that your Christmas spirit was the reason our plane lost power for 10 minutes and would have fallen out of the sky had May not been piloting it and able to put it on the emergency flight power, you better take some of those lights down asap!'

'On it Sir!' called Skye, glancing over at Ward with a sheepsih shrug. He rolled his eyes, and began taking down some of the excessive lights. Skye made sure to start work on an entirely different section of the room so they wouldn't get tangled again.

'You said something about Coulson and second chances,' Ward said as a not-so-subtle hint, stealing a glance at his rookie who paused in pulling down a string of the lights.

'Yeah,' she answered, chewing nervously at her bottom lip. 'The chance Coulson gave me after the whole Miles shenanigan.'

'The conversation I turned down being there for,' said Ward in realisation. 'Oh.' He swallowed. 'I did regret not coming in there with you. Later. When I'd forgiven you. Off the clock or not, I'm your SO and it was my responsibility to be in there and find out why you'd done what you did.'

Skye let out a short chuckle. 'I'm kinda glad you weren't there. You were pissed and I was emotional. I started crying in there – crying in front Coulson I'm good with. In front of my tough as nails and back then furious with me SO? Not so much.'

Ward almost winced at her words, carefully wearing his wellknown poker face so she wouldn't see how her words hit him. 'Even though it's been a while since all that happened,' he said slowly, 'as your SO, am I still entitled to know what you told Coulson?'

Skye's stomach flipped and she figured she was gripping the edge of the bar a little tighter than she should've been.

'If you really wanna know,' she said in a small voice.

'If you're okay with telling me.'

Skye pulled down the last of the section of lights she was working on and the slight roughness of the plane's flight disappeared as the Bus's main electricity became readily available again.

'I'll tell you a bit more than what I told Coulson,' said Skye. 'After all, you gave me your story.'

'That doesn't mean you have to – ' Ward started but her surprisingly frying glare made him fall silent.

'You know that I'm an orphan,' she stated.

He nodded.

'And that I grew up at St Agnes and a few other foster homes?'

Another nod.

Skye pulled herself up onto the bar, sitting on it and swinging her legs, absent mindedly playing with the SHIELD bracelet on her right wrist. 'I never actually knew my parents,' she explained. 'I was dropped off at the orphanage when I was a baby and was never told anything about who dropped me off. I spent most of my life at St Agnes but the orphanage was also a stopover for a lot of children the police had to deal with – for example, when I was twelve, there was a bus accident on the highway. A lot of children were hospitalised but the ones who were okay came to the orphanage until their next of kin could collecet them. Some were traumatised so had to stay with us until the police could figure out who they were. At times like that, the more experienced kids who lived at St Agnes were expected to step up and do what was required of them.'

'And sometimes that meant going and staying at a foster home for a while,' Ward finished, understanding where she was heading.

'Yeah,' Skye said. 'So when I was twelve, around Christmas, me and three of my friends from St Agnes – Sophia, Nathan and Jack – all went to stay at this group home run by an ex-military dude who had been wounded in action and decided to start a home, God knows why.'

'Was it a good place to stay?' asked Ward, not sure if he wanted to know the answer. His suspicions were confirmed at the look on her face and the relived horror in her eyes.

'He beat the living crap out of us,' Skye croaked. 'Not when he was sober, but then again, he rarely was. The four of us spent most of our time protecting the younger kids who were there and then had to take three days back at St Agnes to recover.' She pulled down the collar of her shirt, exposing a large, obvious scar over her collarbone. 'That's from Christmas eve when he came home at 1 am and threw a beer bottle at me.'

Ward grimaced. So she had her fair share of scars too, then.

'Anyway,' she continued, running her fingers lightly through her hair. 'I was at St Agnes for the next few years. Sophie and I were two of the kids in there who were always ticked off about knowing literally nothing about who we were so one time, the two of us broke into the main office and picked the lock of the filing cabinet to try and find _something. _To our disappointment, everything was digitalised.'

Understanding dawned on Ward. 'Which is why you took up hacking.'

'Taught myself the little things,' shrugged Skye. 'The basics. We found a bit on Soph but still next to nothing on me. I just remained at the orphanage, doing nothing special until I was fifteen. That's when me 'n Jack spent two months with this really lovely family. Both of us loved it there but one night, they drove us back to the orphanage and we overheard them trying to explain as vaguely as possible to Sister McKenna why the couldn't keep us anymore. They never gave a proper reason – just kept saying we were lovely kids but they just couldn't do it.' _Like the Brodys. _

The last part went unsaid but Skye could see that he was thinking it through the expression he wore and he knew it was going through her mind too.

'The problem,' said Skye, 'was that there was another huge influx of temporary kids at the time, like the bus accident Christmas. There was a spare mattress on the floor in the boys dorm for Jack but there was absolutely no space for me, so Sister McKenna was begging the family to take me back, just for a week or so. But hearing that conversation, hearing that it was so difficult for them just to find me a place to _sleep_ made me so angry and upset that I packed a bag and ran.'

'You ran away?' (_Too_). He was surprised to say the least. Skye seemed like the last person to run from anything and he'd always given himself a hard time over the fact that he'd done a runner. To learn she had too? Somehow, it made him feel better.

'Yep,' Skye sighed. 'I went downhill from there. Two years of living on the streets...I didn't pick up stealing skills, I just got bad. Had to get money somehow so I got into the bad stuff. Became a messenger for drug dealers, that kind of stuff. I drank, I smoked, I used the stuff I delivered once in a while. I was basically walking skin and bone. I didn't really have much of a reason to survive. I would always save a few dollars to go to an internet cafe and try and hack local police databases to access their archives in the hope that maybe there would be something there. Never was.'

'How'd you end up here?' asked Ward, leaning forward. He was properly curious... he hadn't realised how little he knew about Skye until now.

'Miles,' replied Skye, a small smile edging onto her face. 'I was sloppy one day at an internet cafe and he saw me. Realised I had some talent in hacking and came up to me, asking who I worked for. I was in a bad shape that day and I ended up collapsing on him. When I woke up, I was in his apartment. There was a fresh pizza in front of me and he'd gone and bought me some new clothes. He looked after me, let me stay with him and get better. I got my strength back and he helped me cut ties with my dealer and get a job at a diner down the street. He had been kicked out of home so he understood having to start a new life. I told him about me and how I was trying to find my parents and he said that he would see if he could help me. Eventually, I had enough money to buy a second hand laptop and he started teaching me what he knew of hacking and when he'd finished passing on everything he knew, he told me about the Rising Tide. He explained their philosophy and told me that if I joined, I would probably have more of a chance to access files that could contain information on my parents.'

'Miles saved your life,' Ward said in a hoarse voice. 'I hated that guy and the son of a bitch saved your life.'

Skye grinned. 'Yeah, he's frustrating like that. When he told me that joining the Tide might give me access to the information I'd been looking for all my life, I jumped at the opportunity. I disappeared – completely wiped myself from all systems, any databse, any archives or records and joined the Tide from the bottom. My connection with Miles and my hacking skills got me into the upper circles pretty quickly, and eventually, I had access to all Rising Tide records. That's when I found it.

'It?' echoed Ward curiously.

Skye nodded. 'It was a document with the St. Agnes logo on it. I caught my name, several times and from what I could see, it had something to do with me. There wasn't much to see though.'

'What – why not?'

'The letter was redacted. By SHIELD.'

And then, everything made sense to Ward. 'Of course.'

Skye managed a curt smile. 'When the Tide started an operation to infiltrate SHIELD, I was the first to sign up. They told me to locate myself in LA and wait for further instructions. I didn't have much money, so bought my van and used it as a place to live. The Rising Tide informed me of what SHIELD worked with and what to look out for in LA. After studying methods for a month or so, I started the podcast to grab their attention. I used my computer knowledge and contacts in LA to find what you were looking for before you did. And then, you picked me up. And here I am.'

'You were never really in here for the Rising Tide were you?' said Ward. 'You were here to find the original copy of that redacted file.'

'Yep,' Skye anwered. 'And that's what Coulson said he'd help me with. He found out that the document concerned the person who dropped me off at the orphanage – it was a woman and turns out, it was a SHIELD agent. Whether or not it was my mother, I'm not sure.' For a minute, she considered telling him that May was _supposed _to be helping too (they'd ignored the argument that had led Skye to rip up all her information...in fact, they'd basically ignored each other entirely since that mission) but Skye suspected that there was something going on between May and Ward so left that part out. Well. _Tried _to leave that part out.

'There's something you're still not telling me,' Ward said in a slightly accusing voice. 'Come on Skye, I'm a trained SHIELD agent. I can read people better than that.'

Skye grimaced. 'Okay, first up – tell me something, tell me the _truth_ please. Are you hooking up with May?'

Ward choked on his own breath, eyes widening as he stared at Skye in shock.

'Come on Ward, I can read people better than that,' she teased. 'No but seriously. Remember that conversation we had in the kitchen, where I said something about May needing to get laid? Remember how you _very obviously _stopped dead and tensed up?'

'Oh.'

'Okay so I'll take that as a _yes._' Skye hesitated. 'Are you two...I don't know, are you _just _sleeping together or is it something more...?'

'No, no, no,' Ward said quickly, getting the feeling that they were slowly moving on to the inevitable conversaton of what had just happened in the blackout. 'It's nothing more. It was just a one-off thing after we both went through that stuff with the Beserker staff – ' He regretted saying it immediately when her face fell and he suddenly remembered that revealing this meant revealing that he'd straight up waved aside her offer of being there to talk that night. 'No, wait – Skye don't take it like that – '

'I'm not taking it like anything,' Skye said shortly. 'I get it, trust me. You both went through the same thing so it made more sense for you to talk to her.'

'Where are we getting with this?' Ward demanded. 'Why are we talking about May?'

'Because have you noticed by any chance that May kinda _hates _me lately?' Skye shot back, louder than she'd intended.

'Yeah, I have,' admitted Ward. 'What's that about anyway?'

'Coulson asked her to help find out about my parents,' Skye said, a cold edge still on her voice. 'When I asked her about it, she basically told me to forget about it because it wasn't important. I was upset and ripped up all the information I'd found. Then, she went and kicked me off the goddamn bus. Granted, that had an ulterior plan so that I'd find Coulson without Agent Hand breathing down my neck but that's not the point. She doesn't want to help me and she hates me and we were talking about her because I figured that if you were sleeping with her, I didn't want to say anything that would ruin whatever the hell you two have.'

'You sound jealous,' Ward said quietly.

'I _am _jealous!' Skye all but shouted. 'Goddamn it Ward, did you forget what happened what, five minutes ago?

'I haven't forgotten anything!' Ward shot back, feeling indignance build up inside of him. Hell, he _definitely _hadn't forgotten anything.

Neither of them said anything for several moments.

'Are we gonna talk about it?' Skye barely whispered finally. 'You know. What happened like, five minutes ago.'

Ward dropped the lights that were still clenched in his fist, almost hesitantly making his way over to the bar to stand beside her. 'I don't know,' he replied. 'Are we gonna talk about it?'

'It was wrong,' Skye murmured. 'Right? You're my SO. I'm your rookie. It was a breach of protocol or whatever.'

'I doubt there's protocol against it, to be honest,' chuckled Ward. 'It's happened way too many times for SHIELD to even care anymore. As long as you stay professional, Director Fury usually turns a blind eye.' He muffled a snort at the irony of the last sentence. Fury. Blind eye. Oh man that was bad.

'Yeah, well. What does that mean for us?' Skye cast a shy glance to her left where Ward looked just as uncertain as she did.

'I don't regret it, if that's what you mean,' he said, making sure it was out there.

'Neither do I,' said Skye. She grinned. 'It's Christmas after all, right?'

He smiled. 'Yeah. Christmas.' He looked over at her, his breath catching in his throat. The sun was drifting in through the windows of the plane, falling on Skye. Her hair was tumbling in waves over her shoulders, her eyes twinkling and he had a sudden urge to kiss her again but before he could, Fitzsimmons came rushing through into the living room.

'Was the blackout you guys or us?' Simmons asked anxiously.

'It was us,' laughed Skye. 'Don't worry. Is Coulson angry?'

'I think he's entertained now, actually,' said Fitz. 'He complimented our lab decorations.' He caught sight of Ward. 'Oh so you actually got him to help you then?'

Skye and Ward exchanged amused smirks, trying very determinedly not to burst into laughter.

'Yeah, turns out he's a softie for Christmas spirit,' Skye said, nudging Ward with her elbow.

'Whatever, you wouldn't have been able to put them up on your own anyway,' Ward scoffed but he was still grinning.

'You know,' said May as she entered the room, startling the other four, 'if you want to put up Christmas lights, put them up around the hallways and bunks. Because each person's power use is unknown, SHIELD wires the bunks to run off a different power source so if you hang them up there, the Bus's electricity won't disappear.'

Skye stared at her, astonished before her lips curved upwards in a half smile that May _almost _matched.

'Maybe she doesn't hate you after all,' Ward murmured under his breath in Skye's ear. She didn't say anything but felt as if an invisible weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

'Maybe it's just Christmas,' she replied finally and so that the other three in the room couldn't see, grabbed his hand behind them. 'Like you said. I think it's gonna be a good one.'


End file.
